English, August: An Indian Story

Chatterjee's slacker bildungsroman, first published in India in 1988 and set during that decade, tells of a privileged young man's year of living languorously. Agastya Sen, nicknamed "August" for his Anglophile tendencies, is the urbane, aimless son of a respected government official. After college he enters the elite Indian Administrative Service and is posted to the remote provincial village of Madna. Without conviction or ambition, "interested in nothing," he only wants to "crush the restlessness in his mind." Brutal heat, tedium, insomnia and the absurdities of his job—compounded by a daily regimen of marijuana—only add fuel to his dissolution. Between feeble attempts at learning the ins and outs of district administration from his appointed mentor, Srivastav, a hilarious popinjay, Agastya reduces his routine to a joyless cycle of pot smoking, masturbation and nocturnal distance running. This study in lassitude rambles on at a pace that reflects the rhythms of the insouciant main character's life, but Chatterjee (The Last Burden) , himself an IAS officer, creates a comic, entertaining portrayal of an administrator's life in the sticks. (Apr.)